Burglars only have the chance to grab a few of your valuable possessions with such a small window of opportunity. Burglars will target any items that are valuable, easy to carry and are not easily traced. You can help prevent break-ins by removing these items from plain view. A good burglary deterrent strategy involves keeping desirable items in a safe place.
According to the International Association of Home Inspectors, there are quite a few clever places to hide your valuables from potential burglars. Being creatures of opportunity, intruders frequently seek out homes that are easy targets. You can prevent a burglary by taking measures to keep your home from appearing to be an easy target.
What makes a home an easy target? Prevent break-ins by keeping your house well-lit, your lawn maintained, and removing obstacles that block visibility from the street. Most burglars are opportunists. Intruders often take advantage of an ideal situation in an attempt to make some quick money. Something as simple as a locked door can sometimes be enough to prevent a burglary from occurring.
In addition to locking your doors, there are a few other ways to keep would-be burglars on their toes and prevent a robbery. According to the National Council for Home Safety and Security, certain types of dogs can act as a deterrent to burglars. The larger your dog, the greater the likelihood that a burglar will want to bypass your home.
However, if you and your family are not at home, your pooch may not be as big a deterrent to a break-in as a larger dog -- such as a mastiff or bully breed. This is why having a dog as well as an alarm system can be a more effective combination in preventing a home robbery.
Many burglars will knock or ring the doorbell to see if anyone is home before they attempt to break-in. Take note of their height, weight, hairstyle, or any clothing or items they may have like a backpack to share with your authorities so they can be on the lookout for this person in your neighborhood.
Arming yourself with the right knowledge - and the best home security package - can make all the difference when preventing a break-in. Well-qualified credit. Requires monthly monitoring contract for finance term selected.
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Skip to main content. New customers only. Card terms and expiration apply. Full terms. Claim my offer. Why ADT. Shop Now. Get a free quote and ADT offers. Thank You. Something went wrong An error occurred when trying to submit the form. Please contact ADT. Call Now. Ladders and tools should be stored in a garage or storage shed, and these areas should be locked. Landscaping should be also be designed to control access to your property. Proper barriers make the person with criminal intent feel uncomfortable as he or she approaches your home or business.
It is know fact, that good lighting is a deterrent to crime. While any lighting will help reduce your risk of becoming a burglary victim, the proper lights, used correctly will be the most effective deterrent to criminal activity. Exterior lights are important, especially near doors and in the rear of the house, where intruders do most of their work.
All sides of your home should be protected be security lighting that is located high out of reach, and is vandal resistant. Lighting in carports and garages is critical. For garages, an automatic garage opener is the best choice. Almost every garage door opener made today has a light that comes on when the opener is activated, lighting the garage interior. In carports, it is best to either leave a light on, have a light on a timer, or have a light connected to a motion sensor or photo electric cell.
A style of light that is used on the exterior is a motion detector type of fixture. The advantage to this type of light, especially in the back yard, is that the light warns the resident that someone is in their yard. While there is a concern that dogs, cats, or birds will trigger the sensor and cause the lights to come on, if the resident sets the sensitivity of the sensor correctly this will not be a problem.
In the front yard, any type of lighting will be effective, as long the lighting pattern covers the entire front and sides of the house. Sensor lighting will be effective, but in more prone to "false alarms" caused by things like people walking down the sidewalk, or children playing. When residents go out for an evening, they usually leave on their "burglar beacon". A burglar beacon is a small light that is left on so they don't walk into a dark house when they come home.
These are lights like the one above the kitchen sink or stove, the hallway light, or a light in the corner of the living room. Unfortunately, for the criminal, these lights are a signal that no one is home. If you go out for an evening leave several lights on, and radio. When you go on vacation put at least two lights, in different parts of the house, and a radio on timers.
Regardless of whether you are on vacation, or just gone for the evening, from the outside your house should look as if someone is home. If the gap is too big, replace the door or bolt with a sturdy metal strip to the door edge. You will boost our protection, and save energy too. Most hollow core doors can be easily broken through. If the door is flimsy or weak, or doesn't fit securely into the frame, it offers little protection, no matter what locks you use.
Doors with decorative glass panels or windows are easy marks. It takes only seconds to break the glass and unlock the door. If you do not want to replace such doors, install a break-resistant plastic panel, such as Lexan, or decorative grille over the glass.
Attach the grill with special non-removable screws. The "lock-in-knob" offers you privacy and convenience but it does not offer sufficient security from intruders. In fact many "lock-in-knob" locks can be opened by using a simple credit card. You may have privacy, but you don't have adequate security. All exterior doors require the use of a deadbolt lock. When you turn the key the locking mechanism slides a strong metal bolt from the door into the door's frame.
Single Cylinder Deadbolt Locks Have a thumb turn on the interior side. They are convenient to use and may speed up the exit process in the event of fire. If used near a window they can be opened easily by breaking the window and reaching through. This type of deadbolt lock does not prevent the burglar, once inside, from taking your property out through the door.
Double Cylinder Deadbolt Locks Utilize keys on both sides of the lock. This type of lock should be considered if there is glass window within 40" inches arms reach of the lock. However, this type of lock does present a potential fire escape hazard.
This type of deadbolt lock can delay a burglar that wants to use the door to remove your property from you home. If this lock is used, make sure the key is not left in the inside part of the lock. All members adults and children of the house need to know where the key is kept and also how to use it in order to get out of the house. As many as half of all burglaries take place without forced entry.
Many times the burglar uses a key. Be sure your keys don't fall into the wrong hands. The strike plate is attached to the door frame with screws. The metal bolt of the deadbolt lock slides into the strike plate to secure the door soundly to the door frame.
A high security strike plate is required to keep the metal bolt from being kicked from the door frame when locked. A high security strike plate should have at least four 4 screws that are a minimum of three 3" inches long. Replace these with three 3" inch fully threaded screws so the hinges are anchored to the subframe. In some cases the hinges are installed in such a manner that the hinge pins are exposed to the exterior and an intruder may attempt to remove the pins in an effort to gain entry.
Hinges can be pinned by installing a partially threaded screw into the frame side of the hinge. The unthreaded portion of the screw is left exposed and the head of the screw is cut off. A corresponding hole is drilled into the door and hinge on the opposite side, so when the door is closed the exposed portion of the screw fits in to the door.
This will prevent the door from being lifted out. People often install sturdy locks on their front doors but leave arcadian sliding glass doors and sliding glass windows wide open to illegal entry. Burglars look for both of these because they are easy to open. Usually, arcadian doors and windows are more secluded than a front door, making a perfect place for burglars to hide and enter.
The two factors to be protected against are:. Most arcadian doors and sliding windows come equipped with a lock that is easily pried open. A supplemental lock should be installed. Broomsticks, charlie bars both should fit snug , and finger operated locks provide some protection.
Key locking devices are much preferred because they can prevent the burglars from using the door or window to remove stolen property. There are several types of supplemental locks available. Keyed lock may be keyed alike with other entry lock sets and deadbolt locks.
Check with your locksmith or hardware store and select a sturdy type that most suits your home. Two sheet metal screws placed in the track above the removable part of the door or window can prevent it from being removed.
Adjust the screws so that the doors or windows will just clear underneath them as you slide the window. Drill a hole and insert a nail through the inside frame and part way through the metal door frame. You can remove the nail but the burglar cannot. Be careful when you drill. If you drill too close to the glass, you could possibly break it. Inclement Weather Resources. Visiting the Tacoma Municipal Building. Burglary Reduction Initiative. Residential Burglary Prevention - Tips and Strategies.
Prevent Vehicle Prowling and Break-Ins. Print Friendly. There are more than five million residential burglaries each year in the United States, and most of them could have been prevented. Did You Know? Most residential burglaries actually occur during the daytime and during business hours. Lights Turn on exterior lights at night and, if possible, install photosensitive exterior lights that automatically turn on and off. Doors and Windows Install deadbolt locks on all exterior doors, and use 3-inch long screws to attach the strike plates to the door frames.
Install double-cylinder deadbolt locks on doors that have glass windows adjacent to the locks. This will keep burglars from being able to break the glass, reach in and open your doors from the inside. If your exterior doors have outward facing hinges, replace them with recessed hinges you can buy at any hardware store. Sometimes, burglars will gain entry to a home by pulling out the hinge pins and pushing in the door. Replace the interior hinge pins on your exterior doors with ones that have built-in security studs which act as an additional door lock when the hinges are shut and will stay in place even if the exposed hinges are pulled out.
If possible, replace your exterior doors and door frames with metal or solid core wood instead of the light wood or styrofoam filled doors that were installed by contractors when your house was built. Lock all windows, and exterior doors, gates, or garage doors that provide entry into your property.
Apply security film on windows that are at risk of being shattered. Outdoors Trim back or remove landscaping that provides hiding places around vulnerable doors and windows. Apply the 2 to 6-inch Rule. Trim bushes to below 2 feet in height and limb trees 6 feet up from the ground to help remove hiding places. Plant thorny bushes under vulnerable ground floor windows. Plant climbing, flowering vines that attract bees around vulnerable windows. Ensure that any plants or trees in your yard do not block windows or serve as a ladder to your second floor windows or balcony when they mature.
Use landscape rocks or pea gravel instead of beauty bark. Landscape rocks make a loud crunching noise when someone walks on them, and can alert you if someone is prowling around outside your home. Beauty bark is silent. Organize a block watch group by calling Safe Streets at
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